Educational partners from throughout the county came to Ashe County Middle School last Friday to show support for the school’s being chosen one of 12 finalists from across the country as a “Breakthrough n Breaking Ranks in the Middle” school.

The local supporters joined Principal Bobby Ashley in welcoming representatives of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, North Carolina Middle School Association and International Center for Leadership in Education who toured the school during the week.

Ashley was delighted to welcome his special guests to the school. They came in time to enjoy the fantastic annual performance by students of “A Christmas Carol” and were treated to lunch on Friday along with a power point presentation by Media Center Specialist Sheila Richardson about the school and its programs.

Ashley compared the visit by middle school officials to the excitement that would be generated by having all your favorite NASCAR drivers come to your house for lunch. It is an honor and a privilege, he said, for Ashe County Middle School to be considered for this recognition.

“Building on the success of Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform, the National Association of Secondary School Principals issued a middle level counterpart, Breaking Ranks in the Middle: Strategies for Leading Middle Level Reform,” according to www.principals.org in discussing a series of books on educational reform. “The nine strategies and 30 recommendations that form the core of Breaking Ranks in the Middle are similar to those in Breaking Ranks II, but are grounded in the middle school philosophy. A commission of middle level practitioners and experts had an active hand in developing the book, which includes a number of full-length profiles and vignettes of schools that put the recommendations in action.”

“With support from the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and the College Board, a free copy of the book was delivered in March 2006 to every NASSP member and every middle school principal in the United States, including those in schools with nontraditional grade configurations.”

The power point presentation offered the visitors a glimpse into Ashe County Middle School and its “no excuses” approach to making sure every student is successful. “You should be very proud of that,” Richardson said to the state and national middle school education officials. She explained that the school provides the support every student needs for success and accepts no excuses for a lack of resources and no excuses for not succeeding at high performance levels. This is made possible by the many community partners who enable ACMS to ensure it has the resources it needs to assist students. Representatives of those partners, from business, church, government and education, were present at the luncheon and recognized for their support of the school.

Richardson said the school’s seventh graders consistently perform in the top 10 percent of students statewide, and the school is focused on transition, in bringing the students up from elementary school and preparing them for high school. “I think when you see all these smiling faces, it says a lot about our school,” she said.

Dr. John Harrison, executive director of the North Carolina Middle School Association, described how the success of Breaking Ranks for high schools had been adapted for middle school education focusing on collaborative leadership, personalization and curriculum organization.

Elizabeth Boone, project analyst with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said that through the “Breakthrough n Breaking Ranks in the Middle” recognition, her organization is looking at school reform and what it takes to be an outstanding middle school, and particularly focus on those that serve economically disadvantaged youth as part of their population as well as partnerships the schools operate under. The recognition as a Breakthrough School is a grant program offering $5,000 for student programs and a profile of each school in the organization’s educational magazine. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.